Collaborative Research: PurSUiT: Sampling amoeboid protists as a reservoir of unknown/undescribed eukaryotic diversity

变形虫微生物在生态学和进化上都具有令人着迷的多样性，但它们严重缺乏研究和采样。虽然它们在几乎所有被研究的生态系统中都扮演着重要角色，但人们对自然界中真正的生物多样性知之甚少。该项目的主要目标是研究从陆地到海洋的各种栖息地中发现的变形虫的生物多样性和基因组多样性。研究人员将在密西西比州收集样本，以产生更深层次的群体横截面，这反过来将扩大我们对主要真核变形虫谱系变形虫的环境分布和生态功能的了解。变形虫是真核生物生命之树的一个重要分支，是与动物和真菌亲缘关系最近的动物。因此，深入研究它们的进化和生物多样性对于更好地了解微生物和多细胞真核生物如何进化成我们今天看到的巨大多样性非常重要。该项目将通过为博士后学者以及研究生，本科生和高中生提供研究，教学和推广机会来帮助培养下一代系统学家和分类学家。项目人员参与当地公立学校的课程将提供教育活动，旨在向来自不同社区的学生教授生物多样性科学，导致我们今天在真核变形虫的生命周期复杂性，形态学和生态变化中观察到的巨大多样性的进化机制在很大程度上是未知的。该项目将采用综合方法，使用详细的形态特征，比较基因组学，差异转录组学和环境DNA测序来研究这一群体的生物多样性。它将提供一个更深入的分类单元采样的基因组和转录组比目前可用于这一组，并提供一个更强大的系统发育框架，通过它可以分析基因组和生活史性状的进化。使用独特的变形虫特异性条形码引物，一个群体的环境多样性，这是没有很好地代表在调查中将被解决。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过评估使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准的支持。

Amoeboid microbes are fascinatingly diverse both ecologically and evolutionarily, but they are severely under-studied and poorly sampled. While they act as important players in nearly all ecosystems examined, very little is known about the true biodiversity that exists in nature. The primary goal of this project is to examine the biodiversity and genomic diversity of amoebae found in a broad variety of habitats from land to sea. The researchers will collect samples in the state of Mississippi to generate a much deeper cross-section of the group, which in turn will expand our knowledge of the environmental distribution and ecological function of the major eukaryotic amoeboid lineage, Amoebozoa. Amoebozoa resides on an important branch of the Eukaryotic Tree of Life, representing the closest relative to the lineage that contains animals and Fungi. As such, a deeper look into their evolution and biodiversity is important to better understand how microbial and multicellular eukaryotes evolved into the vast diversity we see today. This project will help train the next generation of systematists and taxonomists by providing research, teaching, and outreach opportunities for a postdoctoral scholar, as well as graduate, undergraduate, and high school students. Participation by project personnel in local public-school programs will provide education activities aimed at teaching biodiversity science to area students from a diverse community.The evolutionary mechanisms that led to the great diversity we observe today in in life cycle complexity, morphology, and ecological variation amongst eukaryotic amoeboids are largely unknown. This project will take an integrative approach to researching the biodiversity of this group using detailed morphological characterizations, comparative genomics, differential transcriptomics, and environmental DNA sequencing. It will provide a much deeper taxon sampling in genome and transcriptomes than is currently available for this group, and provide a more robust phylogenetic framework through which the evolution of genomic and life history traits can be analyzed. Using unique amoebozoan-specific barcoding primers, the environmental diversity of a group that is not well represented in surveys will be addressed.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.